Soophia Khan’s hearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has been delayed after she filed an 11th-hour application to adjourn the case, which the Solicitors Regulation Authority today described as a ‘tactic to derail’ the proceedings.
The high-profile solicitor, who was jailed for contempt of court in January, was due to appear before the SDT this morning after she was referred to the tribunal over 11 allegations, including that she settled two clients’ claims for ‘substantially lower’ than she had advised they would receive.
Khan is also said to have settled two clients’ costs claims without informing them of the offer or its acceptance, paid a cheque in respect of the settlement of costs claims directly into her firm’s office account and ‘failed to cooperate with the SRA and/or the Legal Ombudsman’.
She has been embroiled in a long-running row with the SRA, which intervened into her Leicester-based firm Sophie Khan & Co almost a year ago. The regulator has since taken Khan to the High Court on a number of occasions, firstly in October to gain access to the firm’s files and again in November when it obtained an injunction to prevent her from ‘unlawfully’ acting as a lawyer through a charity called Just for Public.
A warrant was issued for her arrest that month after she failed to attend court to answer allegations of contempt – which were found proved and saw Khan sentenced to up to six months’ imprisonment, though the High Court refused the SRA’s application to summarily strike her off the roll.
Khan mounted an unsuccessful appeal against her custodial sentence and challenged the SRA’s intervention, which the High Court held was ‘necessary and proportionate for the protection of clients’. Shortly after she was released, the SRA announced it was referring Khan to the SDT over the 11 allegations and an eight-day hearing before the tribunal was due to begin today.
However, Khan – who did not attend and was unrepresented – filed an application to adjourn the case at ‘quarter to midnight’ on Sunday and asked for a hearing to be held next week to determine her application to strike out the case against her.
Rupert Allen, for the SRA, said Khan has ‘deliberately chosen not to engage with these proceedings until the very last minute’, which he suggested ‘smacks of a tactic to derail’ the hearing.
‘Some of the allegations relate to Ms Khan’s failure to cooperate with the intervention,’ Allen told the tribunal, arguing that her ‘failure is ongoing and it is hindering the SRA’s efforts to give effect to the intervention’.
He also said that Khan is ‘continuing to represent clients despite the suspension of her practising certificate’ through Just for Public, though he added that Khan contends she has put procedures in place to ensure she is not carrying out any reserved activities.
‘But the fact remains: she is engaging in client work as matters stand in relation to people who have been transferred across to [Just for Public],’ Allen concluded.
The Gazette understands that Khan seeks to strike out the allegations in relation to the settlement of claims and her alleged failure to cooperate with the Legal Ombudsman, as well as in relation to the findings of contempt of court.
The hearing was adjourned until Tuesday morning.
